Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
YouTube saw the greatest growth of any social media app among US users during the pandemic, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.
Google’s video service saw usage grow from 73% of US adults in 2019 to 81% in 2021, followed closest by Reddit, which saw usage grow from 11% of US adults in 2019 to 18% in 2021 .
The conclusions come from a survey of 1,502 American adults conducted Jan. 25-Feb. 8, 2021. The overall margin of error was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
YouTube’s popularity is especially high among 18 to 29 year olds, 95% of whom say they use the service. Of that age group, 71% said they use Instagram, 70% said they use Facebook, and 65% said they use Snapchat. The study included 220 people in that age group, and the margin of error was plus or minus 7.3 points.
Facebook usage among Americans remains high: 69% of American adults say they visit the social network. However, according to Pew, that figure has remained relatively flat over the past five years.
The Pew report first featured TikTok and Nextdoor. According to the report, 21% of Americans use TikTok and 13% use Nextdoor.